Chapter - III

THE MAN EATER OF MALGUDI:

MYTH AS METAPHOR
R.K. Narayan is a prominent Indian novelist and short-story
writer in English. He is one of the ‘Big Three’ of Indian writing in
English and Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao are other novelists who
constitute the body of first generation of Indian Novelists in English. If
Anand is a social critic, and Raja Rao a metaphysical novelist, R.K.
Narayan is certainly a pure artist who used his art for art’s sake. The
opening part of the Chapter traces the influences upon R.K. Narayan,
and then, evolves a perspective by discussing the earlier works of
Narayan in a chronological manner. The later part, of course, discusses
The Man Eater of Malgudi in terms of metaphors Operating within a
mythical structure.

R.K. Narayan is known as a writer of realistic fiction which is

characterized by his peculiar irony and humour. In My Days (1975),
Narayan says that his ambition was to be “a modem story-writer, a
realistic fiction writer in English”1. As a realistic novelist, Narayan
deserves all praise and a critic, Britta Olinder, admires, “Narayan’s
realism is above all seen in his drawing of the background, the day to
day life”2. Among all the Indian English novelists of the first
generation, Narayan has the distinction of being a pure artist, who does
not propagate his political, economic, moral or religious views like
Mulk Raj Anand, a propagandist and a spokesman of the untouchables,
of the poor, and the down-trodden. Narayan’s art is pure and perfect
like any objective artist. He projects events and characters as they
appear to be not as they should be.
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Narayan presents a slice of life in his works with perfect

sincerity and truthfulness. He amuses and entertains his readers by
using irony and humour realistically and vividly. Objectivity and
impartiality are the hallmarks of his genius. He presents both aspects of
life good or evil impartially. His writings are entirely free from any
ideological prejudices. He holds a mirror of society and tries to present
the correct image of events and people in it without any distortions.

Narayan’s realistic novels do have a mythical dimension and his

sources of material in myths and legends are quite rich, but his
technique is different from that of Raja Rao. He uses myths taken from
tales of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas. He also
projects the local legends, folklore as well as primitive rituals like the
ritual for rain, for harvest or ritual for fertility of land or for a woman.

The Ramayana, like other epics, has been the great source of
inspiration to R.K. Narayan. We can witness in the Ramayana the
ancient and popular Indian myths which can transcend the literary
significance into the devotional ethics and the ethical contexts into the
philosophical meanings. Narayan writes in this connection:

It may sound hyperbolic, but I am prepared to state that

almost every individual among the five hundred millions
living in India is aware of the stoiy of the Ramayana in
some measure or other. Every child is told the story at
bedtime. The Ramayana pervades our cultural life in one
form or another at all times. Every one knows the story but
loves to listen to it again The Ramayana in the fullest
sense of the term could be called a book of perennial
philosophy3.
 68

R.K. Narayan has extensively used the sacred stories and myths
in his novels. According to Narayan, “legends and myths as contained
in the Puranas are mere illustration of the moral and spiritual truths”4.
He further says “The character in the epics being essentially prototypes
and moulds in which humanity is cast, they remain valid for all times”5.

Myths offer the patterns of traditional motifs and symbols for

communicating meanings. Narayan has used the mythic events and
characters in the form of metaphors in order to make the sense and
meaning of the story clear, impressive and appealing. According to
Narayan, “Every story has implicit in it, a philosophical or moral
significance, underlying the distinction between good and evil”6. It is
the dynamism of good and evil - god and demon that seems to inspire
Narayan in giving us the imaginative rendering of myths in a setting
which is, at once, local, regional and universal. Harish Raizada writes,

Though R.K. Narayan is not a didactic novelist, he has

extra-ordinary power of evoking a sense of propriety in
life. Though not a critic of society, he is certainly a critic
of conduct. If he is read thoroughly, there emerges a
definite view or vision of life from each of his works7.

R.K. Narayan has consciously made a sustainable use of myth

and folklore in his novels. The imaginative treatment of mythological
incidents and situations is discemable in his novels. Myth and
symbolism emerge as the significant creative mode of his technique to
convey a meaningful worldview of human reality in terms of shared
human experience. Further, it is true that the extent of the use of myth
may differ in his various novels in different ways.
 69

o
Swami and Friends (1935) launched Narayan into the world of
the great novelists. The novel describes the life of boys in South India
schools, and much of Narayan’s personal experience has gone into the
making of the novel. The plot revolves round the activities of Swami,
the hero and his friends Mani Shanker, the most intelligent boy of the
class, Somu, the monitor, Samuel, the short-statured, and so called the
Pea, and Raj am, the son of the Police Superintendent. The novel is
remarkable for the author’s understanding of child psychology and for
depiction of the carefree, buoyant world of school-days in the most
realistic and convincing manner. It mirrors the life of teachers and
students. There is obviously no mythical dimension in the novel. But
the creation of the fictional Malgudi as a typical South Indian town in it
is a new myth which is created by the novelist himself. In the novel, the
incident of launching a paper-boat with an ant-seated in it in a flowing
gutter is narrated as the folk-key on the basis of the Indian folklore.

The Dark Room9 (1938) is a moving tale of a tormented wife.

Ramani, the office secretary of Engladia Insurance Company, is very
domineering and cynical in his ways and governs his house according
to his own sweet will. As he is always irritable, the atmosphere of his
house is generally gloomy and his wife, children and servants always
remain in a state of terror. His wife Savitri is a true symbol of
traditional Indian womanhood. She is very beautiful and deeply
devoted to her husband. Ramani, however, does not respond and regard
her sentiments. Even after their marriage for fifteen years, his wife has
received nothing from her husband except rebukes and abuses. She
becomes a living myth of a suffering housewife in India and in the
world of Malgudi.
 70

Ramani’s lustful love for a beautiful lady, Shanta Bai, upsets the
peace of his domestic life. Finding no path for correcting her husband,
Savithri revolts against him, flings away all her jewellery in a huff and
starts living in the dark room. In the state of despair, she leaves her
home and tries to commit suicide. But finally, she realizes the futility of
her bonds in the temporal world and returns home. It is a stoiy of a
helpless housewife in Indian family.

The novel The Dark Room seems to refer' to the Ramayana.

Savitri of the novel parallels Kaikayee, one of the three wives of
Dasharatha in the Ramayana. Kaikayee enters ‘Kopbhaven’ for
fulfilling two boons once promised by Dasharatha to her. One boon
refers to the throne for her own son, Bharata while the other boon refers
to a fourteen-year banishment for her step-son, Rama. Similarly, in the
novel, Savitri goes to ‘the dark room’, which is a parallel to the
mythical ‘Kopbhaven’, where she discovers her husband’s infidelity.
The Dark Room appears to a realistic myth in the modem context.

The English Teacher10 (1946) tells a love-story which is entirely

different from the conventional love stories. It narrates the domestic life
of Krishnan, a lecturer in English, in Albert Mission College, Malgudi.
Though he is only thirty years old, he feels bored with life in the
absence of his wife and baby daughter. They arrive after a few months,
along with his mother. Krishnan and his wife Susila lead a happy life
for several months. But their happy married life is short-lived. Susila
falls ill and remains bed-ridden. Though Susila’s illness is diagnosed as
typhoid, the best available treatment does not cure her. Finally, she dies
and it tells the autobiographical vein of the novelist himself.
 71

It is a great shock to Krishnan. He is much upset, and loses all

interest in life and in his work. The only comfort to him is his little
daughter, Leela, who absorbs much of his time and attention. He
frequently wanders about a lotus-pond, where he meets a Sanyasi (the
hermit) who can communicate with spirits of the dead. Through him
Krishnan is able to establish a psychic communication with the spirit of
his dead wife. Finally, the boundaries of their personalities are
dissolved and they become one.

The novel illustrates the ancient tale of Satyavan and Savitri and
presents a reversal of the protagonist’s role in terms of gender. It is
Krishnan, but not Suslia, who appears to be the protagonist. Therefore,
Krishnan’s role is largely elaborated in the novel. In the myth, it is
Savitri who brings back the soul of Satyavan from the God of Death
(Yama) but in the novel it is Krishnan who makes relentless efforts to
establish a psychical contact with the spirit of his dead wife, Susila.
The mythic cycle of Savitri and Saytavan seeks a reversal in context of
Krishnan and Satyavan.

Mr. Sampath11 (1949), like the other novels of R.K. Narayan,

makes use of myth. Mr. Sampath, the titular figure of the story and an
unscrupulous and cunning rogue, is the victim of high ambition and
overconfidence without adequate corresponding abilities. He also
resorted to agriculture. Srinivas, an idealist, is another character of the
novel whose role is very important. His repeated reading of Upanishads
makes him indifferent to his family life. He holds a philosophical
attitude to life and the world. Coming from Talapur to Malgudi, he
 72

spends nearly week looking for someone who would print his journal
The Banner. One day in The Bombay Anand Bhavan while taking a
cup of coffee, he meets Mr. Sampath who agrees to print The Banner.
The edition and publication of the Banner absorbs all his attention, and
spares no time to think of his wife and his little son. When they
suddenly arrive at Malgudi from the Village, his surprise knows no
bounds. Srinivas neglects his domestic duties resulting in frequent
. domestic quarrels, which, however, are soon patched up.

The edition and publication of the Banner is suspended because

of a strike in the press. The resourceful Mr. Sampath now decides to
turn film producer, sets up ‘the Sunrise Picture Studio’ with Srinivas as
the script-writer, his friend Somu as the financier, and a young man,
Ravi as the accountant of the company. “The Burning of Kama” is the
first film to be produced with Mr. Sampath acting the role of Shiva, and
a beautiful actress, Shaiiti, that of Parvati. She is the idol of Ravi, and
when he discovers that she is playing the role of Parvati, he runs on the
stage, embraces her and takes her away. There is an uproar in the
studio, much equipment is damaged, and so the film producing venture
also comes to an end.

Ravi turns mad, and has to be sent to the police lock-up. Srinivas
is disgusted, disconnects himself with the film-world, and revives the
publication of the Banner. Mr. Sampath carries on for sometime with
Shanti who then leaves him for good. Mr. Sampath himself has to leave
Malgudi in order to escape the notice of his editors, Somu and others.
The novel ends as Mr. Sampath bids farewell to Srinivas.
 73

The novel Mr. Sampath is centred on the myth of the burning of

Kama, the god of love, who is reduced to ashes by Lord Shiva’s third
eye. In Ravi’s abduction of Shanti in the novel, Narayan used Sita-
myth. Srinivas, the scenario-writer, traces the existence of Sarayu river
of Malgudi of the Puranic times. The conflict between Srinivas and
Sampath is a mythical and parallels between the good and the evil, the
sura (God) and the asura (demon). Thus, by using two main myths of
Shiva and Sita, Narayan successful integrates the mythic element in the
novel which is a recurrent motif in the Hindu mythology. Srinivas, like
Rama of the Ramayana struggles for order in society on the earth but is
entrapped into difficult situations. But Srinivas restores peace in the
end of the novel by experiencing the Upanishadic wisdom while he is
beset by demon-like characters such as Mr. Sampath, Ravi and Somu
like Rama who was beset by many demons. The river Sarayu stands as
a unique blend of ancient myth and contemporary reality. In the words
of Chitra Sankaran, “The novel described Srinivas’s ontological quest
for the values and meaning of existence and its relevance within the
Hindu tradition”12.

The Financial Expert (1952) described the story of the rise and
fall of Margayya, the financial expert. Margayya begins his career as a
petty money-lender doing his business under a banyan tree, in front of
the central co-operative Land Mortgage Bank in Malgudi. He helps the
share holders of the bank to borrow money at a small interest and lends
it to the needy at a higher interest. In the process he earns some money
for himself. The Secretary of the bank and ArulDoss, the peon, seize
from his box the loan application forms he has managed to get from the
 74

bank through its share-holders; treat him with contempt; and threaten to
take action against him. He shows his horoscope to an astrologer and is
assured that a good time is coming for l|im, if only he did Puja to
Lakshmi, the Goddess of Weatlh. The pujq is done for forty days, with
ash from a red lotus and ghee made out of (nilk from a cow. Margayya
goes through the puja and at the end, he hopes of prosperous career.
The theme of the novel is lust for money, but Margayya is no monster
of greed and wickedness. Narayan has succeeded in humanizing him
and showing that despite his lust for money, he is a human being like
us.

In the novel, the myths and symbol||m emerge as the significant

creative mode of Narayan’s technique to fconvey a meaningful world
view of human reality. Various mythical fnotifs like lotus, milk, fire
and banyan tree emerge as archetypal images and evoke deep
emotional response in the mind of the reader because they resemble an
image already registered in our unconscious mind. Owing to their
universal appeal and timelessness, Narayan has found the mythical
symbols a suitable creative mode for comjnunicating the predicament
of the financial expert, Margayya. The nCivel can be read as a moral
fable on the illusion of get-rich-quick schemes of modem times. The
t
novelist has used two symbols for wealthf-milk and .lotus - to narrate
the story of the rise and fall of Margayya. According to the Indian
mythology, Laskhmi is the goddess of opjulence and fortune. “She is
‘honey-like’ (madhavi) and is said to grant ‘gold’, cows, horses and
slaves’ ... she is ‘made of gold’ (hiranyamavi)”14. Margayya feels that
money is man’s greatest need like air or food and he goes to horrifying
 75

lengths for its sake. Money gives him the feeling of being the part of an
. infinite existence. While Margayya lives in time, the priest in the novel
lives “in a sort of timelessness”15. This tnakes the novel a cyclical
representation of life itself. The novel captures and conveys some
lastingly satisfying account of the experiences of the twentieth century
financial expert.

Waiting for the Mahatma16 (1955) narrates the love story of

Sriram and Bharati against the background of the political life of India
during the years which immediately preceded the independence of the
country in 1947. The Vendor ofSweets11 is the story of Jagan, a sweet-
vendor. He is religious minded and has b^en considerably influenced
by the Gita. He is also a staunch follower cjf Gandhi and tries to live up
to the Gandhian way of life. In both the nov el, Narayan diverts from the
traditional myths and uses the newly created myth of Gandhi in these
novels. Narayan has brilliantly woven the historical Gandhian myth
into fine strands of love, politics and idealism.

In The Painter of Signs , the relationship between the main

characters, Daisy and Raman, is based on the legendary relationship
between King Shantanu and Goddess Ganga of the Mahabharata.
Raman proposes to marry Daisy in the Gatidharva style which is most
suitable in the present context. It is Gandharva’s Vivah, the type of
marriage that one reads in classical literature. Daisy says to Raman, “If
you want to marry me, you must leave to my plans even when I am a
wife. On any day you question why or how, I will leave you”. She
makes it very clear to Raman with a mad glint in her eyes. Fascinated
 76

by her beauty, Raman is not to object to or modify it in any manner,

“Whatever you say, I will never interfere. I won’t question you, I will
like the ancient king Santhanu”19. Both Ddisy and Raman re-enact the
mythical parallel of Santhanu and his wife Oanga in the novel.
»

The use of Bhasmasura myth in The Man Eater of Malgudi,

Santanu - Ganga legend in The Painter of Signs and Siddhartha’s
enlightenment in A Tiger for Malgudi, project Narayan as a myth­
making novelist. They express the Indian religious faith. Therefore,
P.S. Sundaram observes Narayan’s novels as “religious fables” . His
characters are often seen visiting temples and performing rituals.
References to temples like Hanuman temple and Laxmi temple in The
Financial Expert and the portrayal of Sanyasis in The Dark Room and
A Tiger for Malgudi justify his deeply rooted faith in Hindu religion
and ethos.

The present study ventures to highlight the use of myth as

metaphor in The Man Eater of Malgudi (1961). The present novel is
much closer to myth than the other novels of R.K. Narayan. In the
novel, he beautifully transcends the ancient myths in terms of the
twentieth century India. Here Narayan has successfully made use of
myth in varied ways, both thematically and technically and has
transformed India’s hoary past into our contemporary reality. The Man
Eater of Malgudi is the only novel by R.K. Narayan which has a
mythical structure which reveals Narayan’s abiding.interest and faith in
the ancient values and his pride for the rich spiritual heritage of India.
In this respect it is apt to quote Shyam M. Asnani when he writes:
 77

It is undoubtedly a vivid and significant phenomenon in

Narayan’s creative work for the imaginative rendering of
the ancient Puranic myth with both serious parallelism and
ironic contrast21.

Narayan has used myth as metaphor in The Man Eater of

Malgudi. Metaphor is a significant literacy tool for formulating and
projecting meaning and vision. It become^ a powerful weapon in the
hands of the writer to enable the reader to understand feeling and idea,
which he tries to express. It provides an insight to the writer handling
his creative problem.

The Man Eater of Malgudi2 is a modem version of the ancient

tale of Bhasmasura, a demon, which is taken from the Mahabharata
that the novelist has used in the novel. He intermingles the mythical
and the contemporary characters and situations, which resemble those
of the myths. The novelist here employs the Bhasmasura myth as a
structural parallel while other myths like Rama-Ravana, Mahisasura,
Gajendra Moksha have been used in a digressional way. All the events
and characters of the novel appear like mythical metaphors. According
to M.K. Naik,

The Man Eater of Malgudi is an impressive novel dealing

with ethical issues such as the fate of evil and the question
of human relationship and the precepts and practice of the
entire business of living23.

The novel is centred on the Shiva and Bhasmasura myth. Nataraj,

the protagonist of the novel, is a printer of Malgudi. He lives a peaceful
life with his employee, Sastri and a handful visiting.friends in his press.
Nataraj’s disruption of his peaceful rhythmic life is caused by an
 78

aggressive intruder Vasu, a taxidermist, who comes to hunt out animals

for his business from the surrounding Mempi jungle. ,

The smooth and congenial life of Nataraj and his friends is again
disturbed when Vasu comes to live with them in a room in the upper
storey of the printing press against Nataraj’s will. Vasu’s gigantic
physique and his aggressive behaviour arouse fear in the hearts and
minds of Nataraj and his friends. Vasu orders Nataraj to print five
hundred visiting cards for him, the bill for which is never paid. As
desired by Nataraj, Vasu narrates his past, explaining how under a
rigorous training received from the ‘Pahelwan’, his master, he acquired
an enormous strength and how ultimately he left him. Vasu’s bullying
talk is frightening to all around.

In the beginning, Nataraj tolerates him but he could not tolerate

the robbing of wildlife of Mempi forest and that of collecting and
stuffing dead animals in his room. When his neighbours complain
Nataraj about the insanitary conditions caused by the taxidermist, he
requests Vasu to vacate the house but he is surprised to learn that a
complaint has been lodged against him in turn and Vasu himself tries to
evict Nataraj by using the unlawful means. •

Vasu has also great passion for women and as a lustful person,
he brings Rani, a notorious dancing woman with some other women
like her, to his room, which creates stormy situations around him by
Nataraj and others concerned.
 79

Sastri, Nataraj’s assistant, an orthodox Sanskrit scholar, always

avoids Vasil. He serves as a chorus, foretells about Vasu’s imminent
doom of destruction by narrating the stories of certain demons like
Bhasmasura and concludes that the evil has its own seeds of
destruction.

Nataraj gets upset when he learns from Rangi that Vasu intends
to shoot Kumar, a temple elephant, on the day of the festival
celebration. He immediately gets his friends acquainted with Vasu’s
wicked intentions and reports the matter to the police. But they express
their helplessness to take any action against Vasu until the crime has
been actually committed.

Nataraj goes to his office the next morning where he comes to

know that Vasu is dead. The police starts investigation in which
Nataraj, his friends and Rangi, the temple dancer, are suspected about
Vasu’s murder. From the medical report, it is evident that Vasu died of
concussion received on his right temple from a blunt instrument. When
the police fail to find any clue of the culprit, the matter is dropped.
Rangi, later on, tells that while striking a mosquito settled on his
forehead, Vasu slapped himself and thus dies of a blow from his own
hammer-fist.

The story of the novel is parallel to the Bhasmasura myth. Sastri

narrates the story of Bhasmasura as under:

There was Bhasmasura, who acquired a special boon that

everything he touched should be scorched, while nothing
could ever destroy him. He made humanity suffer. God
Vishnu appeared as a dancer of great beauty, named
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Mohini, with whom the asura became infatuated. She

promised to yield to him only if he imitated all the gesture
and movements of her own dancing. At one point in the
dance, Mohini placed her palms on her head, and the
demon followed this gesture in complete forgetfulness and
was reduced to ashes that very second, the blighting touch
becoming active on his own head. Everyman can think
that he is great and will live forever, but no one can guess
from which quarter his doom will come24.

In the novel, Narayan introduces the ‘demon’ Vasu like

Bhasmasura. K.R. Srinivas Iyengar rightly comments on the demon -
like Vasu who “is the killer of animals, the purveyor of carcasses the
enemy of Kumar, the temple elephant and the terror of men (the
‘other’), he is of blackness all compact, he glows with evil, he is the
prince of darkness”

Like Bhasmasura, Vasu’s appearance in Malgudi is “equally

sudden”26. As Bhasmasura comes , forward as a true devotee of Lord
Shiva and offers himself to the service of his creator, similarly, Vasu
appears in Malgudi as a multifaceted personality- an M.A. in History,
Economics and Literature, a freedom fighter, a strong man, trained
under a Pahelwan as well as a taxidermist. Vasu emerges suddenly
“practically tearing aside the curtain”, violating “the sacred traditions”
of Nataraj’s press (p. 15). His appearance of Vasu in Malgudi, as he
himself tells Nataraj, is on a professionl ground. “I’m here because of
Mempi forest and the jungles in those hills. I am a taxidermist. I have
to be where wild animals live.” (p. 19).

Nataraj shelters Vasu in the attic of his press though he is not

related with him. Even without Natraj’s consent, Vasu establishes
 81

himself in the attic, Nataraj, out of his human considerations and good
nature, compromises with the situation and utters: “Why not let him
stay there until he finds a house?” (p. 26).

Like Bhasmasura, Vasu creates insurmountable problems for

Nataraj and his companions and as a taxidermist he kills birds and
animals and stuffs them. Consequently, there spreads an intolerable
foul smell which suffocates the inhabitants of the locality. Like Lord
Shiva who had given the boon of indestructibility to Bhasmasura,
Nataraj runs here and there in search of help against the person who
had provided his attic free of charge out of his humanity.

Vasu becomes capable of splintering “a three-inch panel of

seasoned teak” with his fist, snapping “chains”, twisting “iron bars”
and pulverizing “granite” (p. 18). Vasu’s real strength is revealed later
in the novel when he talks to the police inspector cynically, “If I had hit
you with my hand - do you want to see what would have happened? he
brings his palm flat down on the iron frame of the cot and cracks it” (p.
151). Vasu’s fist has become a myth and a metaphor and a symbol of
terror which is compared with the burning palm of Bhasmasura. Vasu’s
handshake with Nataraj is also evident of the enormity and strength of
his fist. Nataraj also feels: “My entire hand disappeared into his fist.”
(p. 16) Vasu makes his principle clear to Sen, the journalist, that he will
not hit anyone unless he is hit first. He says, “I could settle many
problems with this, but I don’t. If I hit you with it, it .will be the end of
you. But that does not mean I may not kick” (p. 27). Bhasmasura’s
indiscriminate killing of the innocent creatures as well as that of human
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beings on the earth can be compared with Vasu in the novel who is
engaged in depleting the forests of Mempi with their creatures. His
hunt includes wild animals of all varieties - tiger, deer, stag, hyena,
python, crow, eagle etc. The heavy loss of innocent lives caused by
Vasu is observed sorrowfully by Nataraj:

He brought in more and more dead creatures; there was no

space for him in his room or on the terrace. Every inch of
space must have been cluttered with packing - boards and
nails and skins and moulds. The narrow staircase at which
I could peep from my machine, was getting filled up with
his merchandise, which had now reached the last step - he
had left just enough margin for himself to move up and
down. (p. 73)

Apart from it, there are several instances in the novel pertaining
to Vasu’s atrocity. As a hunter he is only permitted to shoot duck and
deer but he shoots animals of all varieties. And in a swaggering tone, in
defiance of the vigilance of the forest authorities, he says, “Now they
shall know what I can do.” (p. 31) Nataraj’s visitors' always try to run
away as they catch sight of Vasu as it is difficult for them to cope with
his bullying talk. For Sastri, Vasu has “all the definitions of rakshasa”
(p. 75) He points out the traits which make a rakshasa “a domestic
creature who possessed enormous strength, strange powers, and genius
but recognized no sort of restraints by man or God.” (p. 75) Sastri
further says,

Every rakshasa gets swollen with his ego. He thinks he is

invincible, beyond every law. But sooner or later
something or other will destroy him (p. 75).
 83

Vasu himself says, “I challenge any man to contradict me.” (p.

17) Nataraj considers Vasu “the lord of the Universe” having “no use
for the people’s words” (p. 33). His attitude to Vasu is well expressed
in the way, he responds to Vasu’s behaviour:

His nature would not let him live anyone in peace. He’d
wilt if he could not find some poor man to bully. If he
found some one known to him, he taunted him. If he met a
stranger or a new force, he bluntly demanded, ‘who is he?
You have not told me his name!’ No Maharaja finding a
ragged commoner wandering in the halls of . his durbar
would have adopted a more authoritative tone in asking,
‘who is this?” (p. 27) Vasu’s atrocity to the animals is
viewed pathetically by Nataraj: “No creature was safe, if it
had the misfortune to catch his eye.” (p. 53)

The mental torture that Vasu creates upon the mind of the people
is essentially violent and painful. He appears as a symbol of horror and
a living God of fear in Malgudi. P.S. Sundaram thus comments:

Violence in any form, Narayan feels, is evil, a thing to be

avoided. Compromise is always preferable to
confrontation, an attitude which explains Nataraj’s
reaction to Vasu27.

According to myth, Bhasmasura not only commits massacre of

the innocents but also indulges himself in a rebellion against Shiva, his
originator and benefactor. He threatens Shiva and endeavours to
destroy him. Similarly, Vasu in the novel rebels against his trainer, a
Pahelwan who has made him a strong man as well as against Natraj
who provided him a shelter in his home. The ungrateful Vasu described
the way he treated his master:
 84

I knew his weak spot. I hit him there with the edge of my
palm with a chopping movement... and he fell down and
squirmed on the floor. I knew he could perform no more. I
left him there and walked out, and gave up the strong
man’s life once and for all. (pp. 18-19).

In addition to the Pahelwan (Wrestler), Nataraj also falls a victim

to Vasu’s ingratitude and maltreatment. When Nataraj asks Vasu to
vacate the attic, the ungrateful Vasu maltreats him. Nataraj thus utters,

Vasu had filed a complaint against me as a landlord. There

were also other minor complaints; such as that I was not
maintaining the house in a habitable condition, and was
involving the said tenant in great loss, damage, and
expense, (p. 59).

In this context, it is appropriate to quote Meenakshi Mukherjee

who writes,

the polarity between Nataraj, the meek and tolerant printer,

and Vasu, the dynamic man of action, is too clear to be
overlooked. Nataraj is mainly passive, things happen to
him and he has little power to influence events; while
Vasu is the great advocate of individual achievement.28

Vasu’s rivalry with nature as well as w.ith the mankind

symbolizes in his operation of stuffing animals and that of his
egocentric behaviour towards anyone else. The dialogue between
Nataraj and Vasu, about the bird, Garuda, strikes mythical overtones
which highlight essential devilish intentions of evil-hearted Vasu:

“You have no doubt excelled in giving it the right look,

but poor thing, it is dead.”

“Don’t you see that it is Garuda?”

 85

“What if it is?”

“Don’t you realize that it’s sacred? That it’s the messenger
of God Vishnu?”

“I want to try and make Vishnu use his feet now and
then”, (p. 53).

Vasu ruminates for awhile over Nataraj’s suggestion about the

sacredness of Garuda and thinks in it a business proposition:

I can supply them stuffed eagles at about fifty rupees each.

Every one can keep a sacred Garuda in the Puja and I’ll
guarantee that it won’t fly off. (p. 53).

It shakes Vasu’s conscience who wants to do service to his

religious folk by satisfying his religious sentiments.

The dialogue between Vasu and Nataraj about Garuda clears the
vainglorious and obdurate pride of Vasu who challenges the Absolute,
and the Divine Essence which can be considered as the very force of
creation.

Vasu himself embodies the disruptive force which threatens the

social order. He is a modem rakshasa (demon) who has not the
supernatural powers of moving anywhere at any time nor has he the
power to destroy things at will like the mythical characters of the
Mahabharata and the Ramayana era. But he has a jeep and a gun
which provide him power to go anywhere at anytime and to kill any
creature. Therefore, William Walsh rightly treats the character, ‘Vasu is
one in whom the will is unqualified by the past’29.
 86

Bhasmasura’s lust for Parvati underlines his demonic nature.

Similarly, in the novel, Vasu’s lust for women marks his moral
degeneration. Vasu considers women as a commodity to satisfy his
carnal desires only. He says without any moral scruples:

If you like a woman, have her by all means. You don’t

have to own a coffee estate because you like a cup of
coffee now and then. (pp. 33-34).

Vasu’s sexual urge is boundless while his lust has demonic

touch. As a great womanizer, he encounters a variety of women at his
residence for which Rangi is no exception. Nataraj is wonderstruck to
observe his lustful love for women and he thus utters:

I was mistaken in thinking that Rangi was the only

woman. I had only to stand there between seven and eight
in the morning, and it became a sort of game to speculate
who would be descending the stairs next. Sometimes a
slim girl went by, sometimes a fair one, some-times an in-
between type, some-times a fuzzy-haired woman, some-
morning a fashionable one who had taken the trouble to
tidy herself up before coming out. (p. 86).

According to myth, Lord Vishnu transformed himself in the form

of a beautiful nymph called Mohini in order to destroy Bhasmasura.
When Bhasmasura was well lost in love with Mohini, she charmingly
requested him to dance like her and thus tricked him to put one of his
hands on his head and as per Shiva’s boon he himself was reduced to
ashes. In the novel, Rangi represents the myth of Mohani, an
instrument of Vasu’s death. Rangi dislikes Vasu’s plan of shooting the
elephant. Though Vasu is not killed by Rangi, she becomes
instrumental in destroying him. The novelist himself calls it as “an
 87

unconscious instrument of destruction”30. Rangi fans and lulls him to

sleep but suddenly she goes to sleep. The mosquitoes sing and sting
Vasu’s forehead who gets his own fatal blow while attempting to swat
the mosquito. It is his own palm, once a powerful stroke and a symbol
of terror to others, that brings an end to his life. It is noteworthy to
quote R.K. Narayan who says,

The Man-Eater is a man, not a tiger, an ego-centred man

for whom the objective world is non-existent - a modem
rakshasa who wants to kill the elephant that belongs to the
oi

local temple .

The parallel between Mohini and Rangi can be drawn at two

levels: first, that Mohini is a divine dancer and Rangi is a temple
dancer. Secondly, the name ‘Rangi’ as M.K. Naik notes, “is obviously
derived from ‘Ranganath’, one of the appellations of Vishnu.”32
Moreover, Rangi’s association with the temple is also divine and her
sacrificial commitment, her concern about the safety of the temple
elephant, her idea of mixing some sleep producing dmg with Vasu’s
food are some of the good humanistic traits of her personality which
brings a rightful comparison between ‘Rangi’ and ‘Mohini’.

However, the contrast between Mohini and Rangi is replete with

irony. Mohini is a divine damsel. She has a fascinating charm. On the
contrary, Rangi is an “awful fleshy creature whom Sastri considered a
sin to look at” (p. 119). Mohini contains the androgynic trait of Vishnu.
But Rangi is “a perfect female animal” (p. 85). Mohini is an
accomplished dancer while Rangi’s dance, on the other hand, displays
“only of a few formal flourishes of her arms,” which is unimpressive
and not cared by anyone (p. 122).
 88

Like Bhasmasura, Shiva and Vishnu as Mohini, there are other

myths of Havana, Mahisasura and Gajendra Moksha which can be
described as a mythic metaphor. The myth of Ravana also resembles
Vasu. Sastri says,

There was Ravana, the protagonist in the Ramayana who

has ten heads and twenty arms, and enormous yogic and
physical powers, and a boon from the gods that he could
never be vanquished. The earth shook under his tyranny
still he came to a sad end. (p. 76).

Like Bhasmasura, Ravana too had tried to dislodge the Lord

Shiva from the Kailash Mountain which is considered as the abode of
his boon-giver, Lord Shiva. In the novel, Vasu tries to dislodge Nataraj
from the respectable position, which he had in the society and also
dislodges him from the printing press. Ravana’s “enormous physical
power” (p. 76) can find a parallel in Vasu’s physical power. Bragging
of his powers, Vasu claims that his aim is to prove human superiority to
nature, and tells Nataraj: “Science conquers nature in a new way
everyday; why not in creation also? That’s my philosophy.” (p. 17).

We can witness another myth of Mahisasura in the novel “who

meditated and acquired a boon of immortality and invincibility, and
who had secured an especial favour that eveiy drop of bloodshed from
his body should give rise to another demon in his own image and
strength, and who nevertheless was destroyed. The Goddess with six
arms, each bearing a difficult weapon, came riding for the flight on a
lion which sucked every drop of blood drawn from the demon.” (p. 76).

In Vasu’s case, his powerful fist represents an illusion of

invincibility which ultimately becomes an instrument of his death.
 89

Nataraj refers to the myth ofDaksha, “for whom an end was prophesied
through the bite of a snake, and he had built himself an island fortress
to evade his fate, and yet in the end he died.” (p. 76).

The novelist also discusses the myth of Gajendra Moksha. After

Vasu’s decision to shoot the temple elephant, Kumar, reminds Nataraj
of “the tale of elephant Gajendra, the elephant of mythology who
stepped into a lake and had his leg caught in the jaws of a mighty
crocodile; and the elephant trumpeted helplessly, struggled, and in the
end desperately called out Vishnu, who immediately appeared and gave
him the strength to come ashore out of the ways of the crocodile.” (p.
139).

Nataraj believes in the power of Lord Vishnu and feels that just
as Lord Krishna saved the life of Gajendra, the mythic elephant,
similarly Lord Krishna would save Kumar, the temple elephant, too.
Meenakshi Mukherjee observes the conflict as a battle between good
and evil in society:

The conflict is not between Vasu and Nataraj alone but

between Vasu and society in general, and Vasu’s seeming
superiority over so vast a force merely underlines the fact
that evil is often far more dynamic than the forces of
goodness”33.

Nataraj’s liking for Vasu in the beginning of the novel shows

that evil is not only stronger but is also more attractive than goodness.
In the words of Nagendra Nath Sharan,

The novel acquires the suspense of a detective novel when

Vasu, the embodiment of evil, meets his mysterious end.
 90

Irony reaches the pitch of its powers. It becomes an

instrument of moral discovery. Narayan succeeds in
grafting a modem narrative based on the ancient Indian
myth34.

The novelist exploits the possibilities of the age-old Indian myths

in The Man Eater ofMalgudi and, according to a critic, “transcends the
narrow political, social, and cultural frontiers and embraces human
values that are valid for all times and climes.”35 His use of Bhasmasura
myth and other myths like Rama-Ravana, Mahisasura, Daksha and
Gajendra Moksha in The Man Eater ofMalgudi bring forth a conscious
literary technique. Here the pace of narrative is faster than what we
have seen in his other novels - Swami and Friends, The Dark Room,
The English Teacher, Mr, Sampath, The Financial Expert, Waiting for
the Mahatma and The Painter ofSigns. It seems that a demon like Vasu
has set his own mythic pace in the novel.

The Man Eater of Malgudi has a rich and highly integrated

mythical structure. Many similarities with the Puranas in the novel
carry out Narayan’s art which highlights the moral values prevailing in
the society as well as in the texture of the novel. An essential pattern in
Narayan’s The Man Eater of Malgudi points out Order, Dislocation of
Order and Restoration of Order in society. This order is cyclic. Before
Vasu’s arrival on the scene, there exists the mle of order in the novel
which is violently upset by Vasu’s interference with the privacy of the
blue curtain in Nataraj’s room. At the end of the novel, Order is again
restored and the blue curtain of the printer’s room is peacefully drawn
again. The novel ends wherefrom it had begun and thus restoring peace
and harmony of the cosmos. The classical emphasis on order and
harmony is related to the humanistic concerns and values. Such a
 91

balance between order and disorder, nature and reason, humanistic

belief and social forces are significantly relevant to the Indian traditions
which are the hallmarks of the world of R.K. Narayan.

Thus in The Man Eater of Malgudi, R.K. Narayan has envisaged

the realm of ancient myths in the present face of society with an
experience to connect contemporary reality clearly. The dovetailing of
the ancient and the modem emphasises how an ancient fable can be
contextualized to our own age. Here, the novelist champions the cause
of good and ironically displays that an evil ends into misery and
trouble. He emphasizes that man is the maker of himself and is
accountable for his own destiny. In this connection it is pertinent to
quote the novelist himself in the following dialogue which occurs in
‘God and Atheist’:

An interesting exchange. To the atheist’s question “Oh, come on,

what about catastrophes, calamities and holocausts one sees around”.

God’s answer:

Most of it is man-made, and the others are caused by - we

need not go into all that now. Normally the universe is
stable, stars run their course without bumping into each
other ... only human beings are unpredictable. They are
ready to pounce on and exterminate each other
individually or as groups, communities ... In all creations,
human beings alone display as much ego, aggression and
greed. On the other hand, animals, birds and other
creatures naturally practice a philosophy of ‘live and let
live’. Even beasts which kill for food attack only when
they are hungry. But man will attack, pillage and grab and
jealously hold on it, whether it be food, money or
territory.36
 92

Thus, R.K. Narayana’s use of myth is ironic and corrective in

measure which brings the drama of good and evil, past and present in
order to control man in society. His time and space are cyclic like T.S.
Eliot’s concept of time and history which correlates the pastness of
present with the presentness of the past and that Eliot refers in Four
Quartets.

Time Present and time past.

Are both perhaps contained in time future

And time future contained in time past37.

In brief, R.K. Narayan’s adventure of myth in the The Man Eater

of Malgudi is innovative, corrective and thought-provoking with a
difference.

kkkkk
 93

REFERENCES

1. R.K. Narayan: My Days (London : Chatts and Windus, 1975),

p.102.
2. Britta Olinder: “Reality and Myth in R.K. Narayan’s Novels”,
The Literary Criterion, 20, No. 2 (1985), pp. 8-10.
3. R.K. Narayan: The Ramayana (New Delhi: Vision Book Pvt.
Ltd., 1987), p.6.
4. R.K. Narayan: Gods, Demons and others (Mysore: Indian
Thought Publications, 1973), p.4.
5. Ibid., p. 4.
6. Ibid., p. 4.
7. Harish Raizada: R.K. Narayan, A Critical Study of His Works
(New Delhi: Young Asian Publications, 1969), p.160.
8. R.K. Narayan: Swami and Friends (1935) (Mysore: Indian
Thought Publications, 1971).
9. R.K. Narayan: The Dark Room (1938) (Mysore: Indian Thought
Publications, 1972).
10. R.K. Narayan: The English Teacher (Mysore: Indian Thought
Publications, 1996).
11. R.K. Narayan: Mr. Sampath (Mysore: Indian Thought
Publications, 1956).
12. Chitra Sankaran: The Myth Connection (New Delhi: Allied
Publishers, 1984), p. 139.
13. R.K. Narayan: The Financial Expert (1952) (Mysore: Indian
Thought Publications, 1984).
 94

14. Heinrich Zimmer: Myth and Symbols in Indian Art and

Civilization, ed. Joseph Campbell, (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1974), pp. 91-92.
15. R.K. Narayan: The Financial Expert op. cit. p. 24.
16. R.K. Narayan: Waiting for the Mahatma (1955) (Mysore: Indian
Thought Publications, 1995).
17. R.K. Narayan: The Vendor of Sweets (1967) (Mysore: Indian
Thought Publications, 1996).
18. R.K. Narayan: The Painter of Signs (1976) (Mysore: Indian
Thought Publications, 1993).
19. Ibid., p. 159.
20. P.S. Sundaram: “Naipaul on Narayan”, The Journal of English
Studies, 171 (1977), pp. 129-37.
21. Shyam M. Asnani: “The use of Myth in R.K. Narayan’s Novels”,
The Literary Endeavour, Vol. Ill, Nos. 3 and 4, January - March
1982, April - June, 1982, p. 26.
22. R.K. Narayan: The Man Eater of Malgudi (1961) (Mysore:
Indian Thought Publications, 1994). All the references to this
novel are from this edition.
23. M.K. Naik: The Ironic Vision (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers
Pvt. Ltd., 1983), pp. 73-74.
24. R.K. Narayan: The Man Eater ofMalgudi: op. cit., p. 76.
25. K.R. Srinivas Iyengar: Indian Writing in English (New Delhi:
Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1985), p. 382.
26. M.K. Naik: “Theme and Form in R.K. Narayan’s The Man Eater
of Malgudi”, Dimension of Indian English Literature (New
Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1984), pp. 142-50.
27. P.S. Sundaram: “Naipaul on Narayan”, op. cit., pp. 129-37.
 95

28. Meenakshi Mukherjee: The Twice Born Fiction (New Delhi:

Arnold - Heinemann Publishers (India) Pvt. Ltd., 1974), p. 147.
29. William Walsh: R.K. Narayan: A Critical Appreciation (New
Delhi: Allied, 1983), p. 137.
30. M.K. Naik: “Theme and Form in R.K. Narayah’s The Man Eater
of Malgudi”, Dimension of Indian English Literature, op. cit., p.
150.
31. R.K. Narayan: All India Radio Interview on Sept. 8, 1961
(Published in Writers Workshop Miscellany, No. 8,1961), p. 50.
32. M.K. Naik: “Theme and Form in R.K. Narayan’s The Man Eater
of Malgudi”, Dimensions ofIndian English Literature, op. cit., p.
145.
33. Meenakshi Mukherjee: The Twice Born Fiction, op. cit., pp. 147-
48.
34. Nagendra Nath Sharan: A critical study of The Novels of R.K.
Narayan (New Delhi: Classical Publishing Company, 1993), p.
25.
35. Shyam M. Asnani: “The Use of Myth in R.K. Narayan’s
Novels”, The Literary Endeavour, Vol. Ill, Nos. 3 & 4, April -
June, 1982, p.30.
36. R.K. Narayan: “God and the Atheist”, A writer’s Nightmare
(New Delhi: Penguin, 1987), pp. 164-165.
37. T.S. Eliot: Four Quartets, Burnt Norton, 1-3 (Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1974).